


I'm Done

by elsiecarson



Category: Keeping Up Appearances
Genre: Arguing, Confrontations, Divorce, Drinking & Talking, F/M, Frustration, Promises, Shock, Therapy, angry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-12 10:09:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28758615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elsiecarson/pseuds/elsiecarson
Summary: Richard confronts Hyacinth about how she never listens to him. Does she admit that they have a problem or does she deny it? What is Richard's solution to the problem?
Relationships: Hyacinth Bucket/Richard Bucket
Kudos: 1





	I'm Done

“We need to talk.” Richard says entering the kitchen one morning. Hyacinth is standing at the sink washing her tea cup.

“That’s nice, dear.” Hyacinth says absentmindedly not having heard a word Richard just said to her. She doesn’t usually listen, at least not fully.

Richard can feel his anger boiling just beneath the surface. He walks over to his wife and grasps her upper arms. He spins his wife around to face him. “You will listen to me for once. I’m tired of you not paying attention to me.”

Hyacinth is stunned at her husband’s behaviour. Her eyes are wide open and unblinking as she watches Richard carefully. She can hardly speak his actions are so uncharacteristic. She nods her head and stands stalk still. She’s waiting for Richard to say something else.

“If this relationship doesn’t change soon I’m either going to go crazy or I’m going to leave. I can’t stand being ignored anymore.”Richard explains with his hands still clutching Hyacinth’s arms.

“I don’t ignore you, Richard. Or at least I try not to ignore you.” Hyacinth is surprised at Richard’s concern.

“Alright, you don’t totally ignore me, but you certainly don’t listen to me. Do you know how that makes me feel when I know you’re not paying attention? I know I never talk about my feelings, but I’m done hiding my feelings from you. Enough is enough.” Richard says firmly.

“I listen to you Richard! I swear!” Hyacinth protests.

“You had no idea what I said when I entered the kitchen this morning. It’s always like that and I can’t take it anymore. I listen to every word you say whether it’s directed at me or not and for once in my life I would like the same respect from you that I show you each and every day.” Richard is not backing down anymore. He is finally going to have some power in this relationship.

Hyacinth can’t even look at Richard anymore. She drops her eyes and looks at the floor. “I never wanted you to feel like I didn’t care. I don’t know when all this stopped being enough and why I didn’t say anything. When did being just you and I stop being everything I wanted?”

“I just want to be heard every now and then. I’m not asking for the world, but a little more consideration from you would be nice. I can’t live my life being ignored.” Richard’s voice drops low and for the first time he realizes how much this situation in their relationship has affected Hyacinth as well. He didn’t think it had affected her at all. She always seemed fine with the way they were with each other.

“I can’t live my life with you hating me either. Don’t try to pretend that you don’t, I see it in your eyes sometimes. You hate the way I behave towards you. Neither of us are being very considerate, but we’re holding all our emotions in instead of letting them out at each other every once in a while and now it’s all come to this. Now we don’t say anything of importance at all anymore. It’s unnerving. I need to know that I’m a part of your world. I don’t want to feel as if you could do without me in your life.” Hyacinth whispers as tears begin to fall from her eyes. Normally she’s much calmer than this.

“Hyacinth I would never have asked you to marry me if I thought I could do without you. I never gave up on the relationship, but I think we both stopped putting work into our relationship the way we did when we were young. We were so in love once and I’d love to be that way again. We can fix this. I just didn’t think you realized this was broken. I thought you were living in a dream world and I was pretending everything was alright between us because I didn’t know what else to do with you. I can’t live that way anymore.” Richard says seriously. He reaches out and wipes her tears away, but they keep coming. He hates to make her upset, but if she doesn’t listen then he has to figure out a way to be heard. He hopes she’s truly listening now. He gives her his handkerchief.

“I wasn’t living in a dream world. I just didn’t know how to fix what was happening. I still don’t really. I don’t know how we’re going to change this. I just know we have to try.” Hyacinth blows her nose loudly.

“Why are you so desperate to make this work and why all of a sudden? Things have been broken for a long time and you didn’t say anything or do anything before now.” Richard asks as he pours himself a drink in the dining room. He rarely drinks because Hyacinth doesn’t like it, but he needs a drink badly right now, even though it’s probably a bit early in the day to be drinking.

“I’m trying now because I can’t lose you and because Sheridan isn’t here as an excuse for me anymore. You are the love of my life and I’m sorry I ever forgot that. I’ve disappointed you and me. All I ever wanted in life was to be a good wife and mother and I’ve failed at both of those things. My son only calls when he needs money and I know there’s something he wants to tell me, but he can’t bring himself to tell me and my husband wouldn’t take early retirement because he couldn’t stand the idea of spending so much time with me. I looked up to my mother so much and I failed in everything she succeeded in. She’d be so disappointed in me.” Hyacinth sobs and sinks into her chair at the kitchen table. All the pressure from her family fell on her as the eldest and she put even more pressure on herself to improve and be better.

“She wouldn’t be disappointed in you. She adored you, besides you still have time to change things with me and Sheridan. I think I know what he wants to tell us, but it’s going to be very difficult for us to hear and for him to tell us. You have so much potential in you, Hyacinth, to be everything you want to be and so much more. No matter what you think Sheridan adores you and so do I, despite everything that has happened between us.”Richard kneels next to Hyacinth’s chair and looks up into her tear stained face. In that face with no make-up he sees more of the girl he fell in love with than he has in a long time, even in the stupid dress he hates. She looks vulnerable and scared that her world could fall apart. She never used to be perfect and that is why Richard fell for her.

“Please Richard, don’t leave me. Let’s work on this. I’ll do whatever you feel is necessary to pull this back together. You were my saviour and best friend once and I miss that. I forgot how important you were to me. I took you for granted.” Hyacinth speaks honestly and from her heart, which is rare. She’s not thinking of social propriety or anything else except how to get Richard to stay.

“This may surprise you, but I took some initiative and called the vicar for some advice. We talked once, a while ago, while I was trying to fix the church electrics and I don’t think he was surprised when I told him I spend a great deal of my time in the bathroom trying to escape my life. I think he was very surprised when I asked for help for you and I. I thought it was worth the risk because I knew we couldn’t keep living this way. Will you come with me?” Richard asks hesitantly.

“Of course I’ll go. I would be foolish not to. When does the vicar want to see us then?” Hyacinth looks down at her husband who’s still crouched down on the kitchen floor.

“Our first session is Tuesday morning. He said we have nothing to be nervous or embarrassed about. He said he finds lots of couples after their children move out need a little relationship tune-up, as he called it. I just think we got wrapped up in our own lives and stopped checking in with each other the way we used to. I used to love our time together after dinner when Sheridan was a baby when we would sit and talk. You’d be so tired after your day with him that you’d fall asleep on my shoulder. I used to love carrying you up to bed. I want to have those memories again.” Richard tells Hyacinth. “I want to have special, romantic moments between the two of us. We have the time now to do whatever we want and we’re just not doing anything.”

“Would things have been different if we’d had more children, do you think? I’ve often wondered if we would have stayed closer if we’d had more children because I couldn’t have focused on just one. Sometimes I feel guilty that Sheridan didn’t have siblings to grow up with like I did. I abandoned you and we were so close. I still can’t understand why I felt at the time that I had to do that. Sheridan certainly didn’t need me to hover as often as I did. I jeopardized everything for us.” Hyacinth puts her head down on the table in despair.

“I didn’t fight very hard for us though and I didn’t press to spend more time with my son. I loved watching you with him and so I let you do as you liked. I didn’t realize how much you were pulling away and I didn’t want you to feel as if I didn’t appreciate what you were doing with Sheridan. I worked longer hours so you could spend more time with Sheridan, but I never thought that Sheridan not having a solid relationship with me would affect him so much. I never thought that you not having a solid relationship with me would affect him so much.”


End file.
